Natural Hazards / Earthquakes

This weeks' assignment really was a great way to shake off the cobwebs from the break and start making some maps again.   We concentrated on using some tools in ArcGIS that I hadn't used before and that will prove VERY helpful in my current job.

For part 1, we considered the impact on infrastructure in the event of an earthquake near Memphis, Tennessee.   On this map, I decided to make it 11" x 17" rather than 8.5" x 11" to try to best display all three scenarios (dams, Interstates, and railroads).

For Part 2, we looked at the peak ground velocity of the aftershocks.  

For Part 3, we examined aftershocks that were greater than magnitude 3.0

And for part 4, we looked at the intensity of the aftershocks.

We also created a couple of graphs along the way using the built in ESRI tools:

Here is my Process summary for the lab this week:

Process Sumary:

 Earthquakes Part I

1)      Copied all the data from the r: drive to the s: drive.

2)      Unzipped the files

3)      Opened up the NewMadrid.mxd file

4)      Used the identify tool to research the data

5)      It appears that Memphis would suffer the most damage in an earthquake in this region

6)      Performed a select by location to see the areas that would be affected

7)      Next we learned about the summary feature which I wasn’t aware of.   I can see this being VERY useful in my day to day work.

8)      We can see that there are 91 areas that would be greatly impacted by this event

9)      Next we calculated the population density of the counties.  Again, VERY useful lab so far and I have just started !

10)  Next we intersected the county data (including population density) with the New Madrid data

11)  Created the PopMMI table

12)   Using the summarize tool, we can see that 60,088,857 people live in the affected areas

13)  Created the graph as instructed

14)  Added my numeric values to the Modified Mercalli Scale data

15)  Created my clipped Istaterisk layer

16)  Next I did a SELECT BY ATTRIBUTES to determine all the areas where the intensity was 8 or greater

17)  Then I did a SELECT BY location to see which Interstates intersected these areas

18)  Clipped this data to the map to see my At Risk Interstates

19)  Did a similar process for Railroads in the are that had an index of 10 or higher

20)  Finished this section by doing the dams at risk as well

21)  For my map on this section, I wanted to try to think outside the box a little bit so I choose a different map size of 11x17 instead of the normal 8.5 x 11.   I hope this was OK for this map which will display all 3 results on it.

Earthquakes Part II

1)      Now on to the second part of the lab

2)      Opened the Northridge1.mxd map

3)      Made sure the Spatial Analyst extension was enabled (Under Customize, rather than Tools)

4)      Symbolized the dots for the building damage and arranged layers as instructed.

5)      Did a select by attribute to choose only the red and yellow tagged buildings

6)      Set up the Kernel Density tool as instructed

7)      Cleared the selection and turned off unused layers

8)      Set the lowest level of symbolization to “No Color”

9)      Used the effects toolbar to set visibility to 15%

10)  Saved the Damage Pattern as a layer file

11)  Added the layer back in and symbolized

12)  Opened the Geology layer

13)  Examined the Liquefaction layer

14)  Tuned on the Stations layer

15)  Opened the Spline Interpolation tool

16)  Ran this tool with the recommended settings

17)  Created the PGV Layer and set symbols/transparency/etc…

18)  Prepared Map

Earthquakes Part III

1)      Now on to the third part of the lab

2)      Opened up the Northridge2.mxd map

3)      Added the text file while changing the Projection to WGS

4)      Exported this data out to a shapefile

5)      Removed the CSV file from the project

6)      Selected the Main Shock by doing a select by attribute

7)      Created a new layer to represent the Main shock and symbolized as a red triangle

8)      Created my map of Aftershocks greater than 3 and symbolized appropriately.   I am a little worried that my dots are in a “grid” format rather than randomly scattered, but hopefully that is how it is supposed to look.   I actually reloaded the project from the R: drive to ensure that this should be fine.

9)      I didn’t see any of the ArcScene in this lab which it referred to

Earthquakes Part IV

1)      Now on to the fourth part of the lab

2)      Opened up the Northridge3.mxd map

3)      Created the Summary table similar to the process we did earlier in the lab

4)      Created my Graph and exported it out as a JPG file

5)      Posted my contents to dropbox and blog

I really enjoyed this weeks’ work even though it was very time consuming.   I learned a lot of new tips with ArcGIS that I can start applying to by job already.    I hope this is a sign of what kind of labs to expect for this class, because it really is helpful.   I tried to make my maps a little different from each other just to try to get back into the swing of making maps each week.